Entering her fourth year Lea Mauer had done just about everything a coach could do. Mauer’s charges had earned NCAA titles, set World Records, made the 2008 Olympic Team and claimed the top spot in the CSCAA poll. All that was missing was a NCAA team title, but with Julia Smit and Elaine Breeden set to graduate some viewed 2010 as Mauer’s best shot for a championship.
| It wasn’t to be of course, but with this year’s incoming class, it won’t be long before Mauer and her squad bring home their first championship trophy. Stanford signed three of the six best swimmers in the country. North Baltimore’s Felicia Lee will ease the loss of Breeden in the butterfly and headline a class top-heavy in middle-distance.
Lee is far from the only star, however. Maya DiRado and Andie Taylor also rank among the top 1% of all recruits in multiple events. Add in Sara Gilbertson, Kirstie Chen and Allison Arnold and the Cardinal have a mid-distance group that can match the Gators in strokes, and Georgia in the freestyles. The one recruit you’d expect to slot into this mid-distance group is Alex Whitford. Whitford’s mother Anne finished third in the 400 IM at the 1980 Olympic Trials and still ranks among the top ten on Stanford’s all-time list, but daughter Alex is a raw sprinter. She could also be instrumental in securing Maurer’s first title because while the Smits, Breedens, and Lees can be penciled in for 50-60 points apiece, sometimes that’s still 2 ½ points too few.
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